The campaign of bullying — the attempt to terrify Greeks by cutting off bank financing and threatening general chaos, all with the almost open goal of pushing the current leftist government out of office — was a shameful moment in a Europe that claims to believe in democratic principles. It would have set a terrible precedent if that campaign had succeeded, even if the creditors were making sense.

What’s more, they weren’t. The truth is that Europe’s self-styled technocrats are like medieval doctors who insisted on bleeding their patients — and when their treatment made the patients sicker, demanded even more bleeding. A “yes” vote in Greece would have condemned the country to years more of suffering under policies that haven’t worked and in fact, given the arithmetic, can’t work: austerity probably shrinks the economy faster than it reduces debt, so that all the suffering serves no purpose. The landslide victory of the “no” side offers at least a chance for an escape from this trap.

Owen Jones, fristående kommentator i brttiska The Guardian:

Martin Schulz, the European parliament’s president and a so-called social democrat, whose attitude towards democracy can be generously described as ambiguous, called for the removal of Greece’s elected government in favour of a technocratic government.

It wasn’t bluster. That’s what the EU and the markets previously pulled off in Greece and, yes, in Italy.

Tim Stanley, kolumnist i brittiska The Telegraph:

The EU has to recognise that the Greeks have spoken as a nation. It is time to forgive and restructure the debt – just as the world did to Germany in 1953. If the EU is truly rooted in democracy, it must acknowledge the plea to do this, implicit in the referendum. If it is truly built on solidarity, it must be compassionate.

How much better the world would be if we could all walk a few steps in each other’s shoes? If so, we might conclude that Greek social democracy was a greedy dud and that the country must reform – whatever its blowhard government says. But we might also feel the pain of one of the teachers with a third less pay, or one of the 50 per cent of Greek kids without a job.

What was the point of the European experiment but to uplift our fellow Europeans? If the price of the project is to stamp on the face of Greece for eternity with an iron boot, then we should consider walking away from this madness in disgust.